Blue Jackets rookie defenseman Dalton Prout, once considered a pleasant surprise, no longer flies under the NHL radar.

Don Cherry made sure of that on Saturday night, when the outspoken Hockey Night in Canada personality devoted a segment of his “Coach’s Corner” intermission show to Prout.

“This guy, I’m telling you, this guy is going to be a force,” Cherry said over highlights of Prout, who is 6 feet 3, 219 pounds. “Dalton Prout from Kingsville (Ontario). He fights, he hits, he got a goal the other night. He’s really something. He’s one of my favorites.”

The approving words still are ringing in Prout’s ears. Cherry, a former Boston Bruins coach, carries a lot of weight with a small-town guy from southern Ontario.

“I thought that was so cool,” Prout said. “You grow up with that part of your culture on Saturday nights, listening to what Don Cherry has to say. I’ve been doing it since I was 5 years old, since I was old enough to know what Hockey Night in Canada was. To be recognized by someone like that, someone that everyone listens to, it’s cool. It’s a little bit surreal.”

It would be hard for Cherry or any other fan of hard-working and hard-hitting hockey players not to take notice of Prout, who quickly has become an integral part of the Blue Jackets’ blue line.

Prout, 23, was recalled from minor-league Springfield on March 1 and has yet to leave the lineup. He leads the Jackets with a plus-14 rating and has one goal, four assists and 20 penalty minutes — including two fighting majors — in 26 games.

His plus-minus rating, by far the best among the Jackets, is tied for the lead among rookie defensemen with Jake Muzzin of Los Angeles and ranks ninth among all NHL defensemen. Only two other Jackets have finished a season with a plus-14 rating or better: Derek MacKenzie (plus-14 in 2010-11) and Jan Hejda (plus-23 in 2008-09 and plus-20 in 2007-08).

The most impressive number related to Prout, however, might be the Jackets’ 17-5-4 record with him in the lineup. They were 5-12-3 before his arrival.

“He’s big and moves well,” coach Todd Richards said. “Once he got his feet wet and became a little more comfortable with the group and the way we play up here and just being in the NHL, he really steadied himself and became a really solid defender for us.”

Prout, a sixth-round pick in 2010, has rocketed into a role among the top two defensive pairings. If he weren’t a defensive-minded defender with only 26 games under his belt, he likely would be a Calder Trophy candidate for Rookie of the Year.

But the way Jackets winger Cam Atkinson sees it, Cherry and pretty much everyone else is late to the party. He sensed Prout’s prowess the first time they stepped onto the ice together in Springfield.

“From Day One, I thought he was going to be an NHL player for many years,” Atkinson said. “He has a physical presence and you can definitely tell that he’s a lot more comfortable with the puck when he’s making that first pass out of the zone. It’s going to be exciting to see how much more bigger and stronger he gets in the next couple of years and how much of a more dominant player he can be.”

It’s hard not to focus on Prout’s size, a welcome and necessary addition to the Jackets’ back end. But his composure and positioning belie his size and his age. The game, even in the ramped-up environment of a playoff race that continues tonight with a crucial game at Dallas, is rarely too rich for him.

It is in part the product of some advice Prout said he received from the Jackets’ staff during a five-game stay in Columbus at the end of last season.

“You can work really hard but if you skate around like a chicken with your head cut off you’ll accomplish nothing,” Prout said.

Cannon Fodder Podcast

Cannon Fodder is the podcast from The Dispatch sports team covering the Blue Jackets. Tune in for lively discussions about the ta and the rest of the NHL. Subscribe to the show through its RSS feed or iTunes.

Commentary from the Dispatch

Columnist Michael Arace shares his thoughts on the Blue Jackets and the NHL.